Shipping Weight Calculation

The shipping weight calculation approximates the actual shipping weight of the product being shipped. When packaged shipments are completed, actual weights from the carrier are updated to the shipment. For LTL/Truckload shipments you have the option to physically weigh the shipment by pallet and enter that accumulated weight as the bill of lading billing weight for the freight. Many factors can influence shipping weight: the time of the year (humidity makes some things heavier), how you combine items for shipment, use pallets, etc. Therefore, the estimated shipping weight is an approximation that uses a document-dependent quantity:

Keep in mind that where items show a line wieight

Estimated Order Weight Values

For items other than manufactured configured products, item weight variables used are those associated with the item at the time of shipment creation. The unit, package and master pack values in Branch Item Maintenance (IMB) are used in the calculation as follows:

  • Quantity multiplied by the Weight per UOM. This is the weight of the item only.

  • Quantity divided by the Units per pack and always rounded up to next integer. This result is multiplied by the item's Package weight.

  • Quantity divided by the Units per master pk and always rounded up to the next integer. This result is multiplied by the item's Master pack weight.

  • Pallet/container weight is an informational field and is not considered in weight calculations.

The sum of the item, package and master pack weights are accumulated; this is printed as the item/line weight. The sum of item/line weights may not always match the total weight for the shipment as additional weight for special packaging (such as pallets or crates typically associated with international shipments) may apply. Packaging codes are defined in Special Packaging Codes Maintenance (TSPM) and are specified by customer and customer ship-to address (maintained in Customer Maintenance (CM) and Customer Ship-to Maintenance (CSM)).

Configured Products

For configured products that are sold as kits, the calculation is the same as the above but selected configured product components are used rather than ordered line's item number.

For configured products that are manufactured, the order line's item number and quantity determines the pack quantity, package weight, master pack quantity and master pack weight. Selected components' unit weights (excluding models and prompts) are used to calculate the model's weight per unit of measure (i.e., the options and/or accessories selected impact the weight).

Freight Detail

If the shipment is via a package carrier and you import shipping data from the carrier, each package shipped becomes creates a detail record with all details for the package.

If the shipment is supported by a bill of lading, the manually verified billing weight is used to create a single freight detail record that contains the bill of lading billing weight. If the billing weight is different than the estimated shipping weight and there are multiple shipments are involved, the billing weight is prorated to the shipments based on the estimated weight of each shipment. Since the pallet/box counts are on the bill of lading, the box count is not printed on the packing list.

If you do not import manifest details or use bills of lading, actual freight details can be manually entered or optionally handwritten on packing documents.